Easter

OK, OK, it was a month ago.  I've been busy:

Clara turned 9 months on Good Friday.  Did I do a 9 month post?  I have no idea.  Well here are the pics, complete with bunny slippers.

"Oh, fun, pictures!  Let's see how quickly I can dive face first off the couch!"

Doing her favorite thing, putting a choking hazard into her mouth.

Stop taking my picture riiight now or I will come get that camera from you and put it in my mouth!

I mean it woman!  Here I come!

From 8-9 months the whole game changed.  Clara started crawling for real, started eating table food, gave up baby food ("get that spoon out of my FACE!"), really started loving her walker, started pulling things out of cabinets, and just generally going after anything that isn't baby-proof.

She's just as cute as can be and we are enjoying every second!

On Good Friday Quincy drove down to Buies Creek to help his mom load up the furniture she is inheriting from her mom, Granny Call.  Tucker and I met them in Greensboro, where we decided to flip flop all of the rooms in her house, and Clara relished in the fact that we wouldn't be paying close enough attention to her to notice when she started going for the breakables.

Saturday we headed to Lexington to see Quincy's dad's side of the family:

Clara and Ciara playing.

Clara looking confused with Easter Egg in hand.

Tyler, Adam, Tucker (what is UP with those socks?)

I should have taken more pictures.

We headed back to Raleigh and the Easter bunny came!!

The goods.

Going for it.

Got it.



Oh my gosh mommy, the Easter bunny is AMAZING!  Look at this!  He brought me Stacking Cups, Teething Biscuits, books and OMG, a CELL PHONE! (She puts that thing straight up to her ear!  How does she know to do that with it???)

After opening her Easter basket, we all got dressed and went to church with the Hammonds (wish I had a picture of that).  Clara and Annalise looked so stinking cute!  We went to brunch at the bowling alley.  Seriously.  It's called Sparians and it's an upscale bowling alley with a Bistro attached.  I did the lease last year and I was really eager to see it.  There is a private room/lane in the back where they set up the most amazing brunch spread you have ever seen in your life.

Clara in her Easter Dress.



Family Photo, Our First Easter.



Clara and Mommy.

Then we went to dinner at my parents' house with the Thurmans.  I know, it's a lot.  I'm not even sure how we did it all.  Clara was a fabulous sport for all of it.

Hamburger-Mac

Sleep When the Baby Sleeps

"Sleep when the baby sleeps."  That is all you hear right before you give birth and for a few months after.

I found this nearly impossible to do.  First of all, there's that whole business of not wanting to put your tiny baby down.  If you listen to the books, which I did, you put your baby down when she is drowsy but awake.  But then they say it doesn't really matter for the first couple of weeks.  So there's lots of cuddling to be done that always takes precedence over sleeping.

And then there's the visitors, phone calls, cleaning and laundry plus the general need to function during waking hours like normal people do, even though life feels anything but normal in those first few weeks.  And Clara had a milk protein intolerance that caused her to cry pretty much non-stop until she could sit up unassisted (I'm not entirely sure why one led to the other).  But, see?

I promise we are not laughing at her.  OK, maybe a little, but sometimes you just have to laugh because otherwise you would be crying too!

So sometimes when they go to sleep you just want to sit in the silence for a second.

Then you go back to work.  Wow.  Now that is a whole new level of tired, and yet I hardly ever sleep during her naps on the weekends when I am home.  There's just too much to do. 

I would be surprised if any new moms out there actually made this concept work.  And if so, what are your secrets?

Favorite baby stuff in pictures:

The Swaddle Designs Ultimate Receiving Blanket and the Miracle Blanket (you can't really see it because she's covered up with a stroller blanket).  Notice that she is actually sleeping in the pictures!  Clara was swaddled in the Swaddle Designs blanket using the method from The Happiest Baby on the Block during naps until 5 months and the Miracle Blanket at night for just a little bit longer:

The nap nanny for when they are congested or if you have a reflux issue.  You have to stop using this when they can roll off of it:

The Lamaze Chime Garden and Leap Frog Spin and Sing Alphabet Zoo:

Avent Pacifiers and Halo Sleep Sacks (once they are too big for the swaddle):

Trumpette socks: 

Monkey Island by Tiny Love (she was a little too old for it here) and fleece sleepers from Carter's, especially the ones with the zippers.  (Notice her hand in mid-motion, this kid never stops):

 Kissy Kissy converter gowns and Clouds and Stars sheets:

Baby Jogger Summit 360 with car seat adapter:





Pampers' Swaddlers' Sensitive diapers (use Amazon Mom!), Baby Orajel, Gerber feeding spoons, Spasilk baby wash cloths, Sassy baby rattles, Target brand acetaminophen and gas drops.  All of the above were integrated into this diaper cake, given to me by my sweet friends Abby, Anna and Jackie:

Enough for now!